Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is undoubtedly essentially the most thrilling factor coming (presumably) this 12 months for FromSoftware followers, however the Darkish Souls 3 mod Archthrones additionally has a ton of juice. The formidable whole conversion simply confirmed off a brand new space, The Excessive Lord’s Temple, and it seems prefer it runs nice on Steam Deck in addition.
Archthrones will remix areas from Darkish Souls 2 and three to inform its personal story within the setting, and the Excessive Lord’s Temple riffs on one in all Darkish Souls 3’s most incongruous areas. Although its catacombs are situated below a swamp (and, bafflingly, over one other totally different swamp), Carthus was supposedly a desert kingdom.
The Excessive Lord’s Temple, named for large boy skeleton boss Excessive Lord Wolnir, provides a have a look at scorching, sandy Carthus in its prime, earlier than some timey-wimey, dimensional shenanigans despatched it underground. The warmly-lit citadel below a vivid blue sky makes for a pleasant distinction with the shadowy, claustrophobic catacombs of the bottom sport, and the footage exhibits a participant doing battle with robed apparitions as a substitute of the nasty skeleton guys we’re used to.
There’s an incredible large bell at a scenic overlook that I can solely assume opens a gate or summons a boss or one thing, and I am excited to see how this degree unfolds within the full mod. It additionally appears to be working effectively on the Steam Deck, even when the hand held’s 800p decision does not look one of the best blown up on my 1440p monitor.
Archthrones presently has no set launch date, however you may observe improvement by way of its Twitter and YouTube pages. For one more thrilling Soulsborne whole conversion to stay up for, the Dusk mod for the OG Darkish Souls seems positively sick.
